final tour dvd

[Pedro]

An interesting extract from the 'Irish Independant' following the Dublin date last year.


SAY what you like about Cliff's sense of style, but 14 number one singles across five consecutive decades probably earns you the right to wear whatever garish pink jacket you like. Even the matching sequinned tie is forgivable with a record like that.

Whatever the man had before, he's still got it. His voice remains smooth and accurate, if not the most emotive, while each smile from his young-looking face (he is almost 69) sends parts of the audience (not a whole lot younger) into an adolescent tizzy.

Yes, the dancing is awkward and clunky -- when was it ever anything else? -- and the songs vary from standard early rock 'n' roll fare to sub-average schlock. But it's completely inoffensive stuff, and only the awkward and cheap-looking graphics in the background provide any cause for upset.

'Living Doll', 'Put On Your Dancing Shoes' and 'I'm the Lonely One' all form part of the early set, with strong vocal harmonies from The Shadows giving the material the edge it so desperately needs. It quickly becomes apparent that the real star may not be Cliff after all.

And when he walks off the stage and leaves the band to its own instrumental devices, for one segment on each side of the interval, this notion is confirmed. 'Wonderful Land' in the first half, and 'Apache' in the second, receive the biggest cheers of the night until the show's end -- and show how lucky Cliff Richard was to be blessed with these musicians 50 years ago.

Spell

Lead guitarist Hank Marvin is a particular wonder to behold, as his distinctive, reverberating and trembling strains cast the audience under a spell; one which is broken only when the grinning frontman returns to throw out a few more hits. 'Summer Holiday', for one, seems too much to bear after the moody and tinged sounds of The Shadows.

If Cliff Richard helped to shape light pop music, then his backing band helped to shape rock'n'roll. And on the evidence of this show, it's quite obvious to whom the real legendary status belongs.

- Aidan Coughlan

[Didier]

Can't play it on my DVD player, but I can add it to the collection. Sad, I know...

Many DVD players can be set to "region free" without any hardware modifications...
Didier

Yeah, I did manage to reset the region on one of my old DVD players (with some help from a friend) so that it would play American discs. I'm not really that keen on messing about with them though.

Generally you have to key-in a specific code from the remote control which allows to set the player on any region, including region 0 which means that any region DVD will be played.
I have done that on my Philips DVP-630 DVD player long ago, and I have been playing European, US and Japanese DVDs with no problems.
Such codes are for service purposes and not intended to be made public, but can be found on the net. It won't damage the player, and you can put it back to the original setting.

Didier

[Didier]

It quickly becomes apparent that the real star may not be Cliff after all.

And when he walks off the stage and leaves the band to its own instrumental devices, for one segment on each side of the interval, this notion is confirmed. 'Wonderful Land' in the first half, and 'Apache' in the second, receive the biggest cheers of the night until the show's end -- and show how lucky Cliff Richard was to be blessed with these musicians 50 years ago.

My friends an I noticed the same at the Paris show on November 7th. The applauses for the Shadows were stronger than for Cliff !

Didier

[cockroach]

Merci Didier!

I also figured out that if I was going to risk changing my DVD player region setting at all- then it would be OK to change it to the zero region setting - where the player would then play ANY DVD from ANYWHERE! Why would anyone then want to change it back to where the player would only play DVDs from one region???

C'est pas de logique, n'est pas? (Excuse my French- your English is much better than my French!

A bientot, mon ami!

[Didier]

I also figured out that if I was going to risk changing my DVD player region setting at all- then it would be OK to change it to the zero region setting - where the player would then play ANY DVD from ANYWHERE!

This is what I have done, but with the remote control code, there is no risk at all, you only have to search on the net if such a code exists for your DVD player model (I bought my player only after checking that the region change code was available...).

Why would anyone then want to change it back to where the player would only play DVDs from one region???

Of course, I never went back !

Didier

[peter roest]

There is one thing I want to remark, the DVD is perfect. But......... the DVD is not 100% live. Afterwards studio records did complete the DVD.

Peter

[Stageleft]

The DVD was produced from the pictures from over a dozen cameras and full multitrack recording of all the audio from 2 nights performances at the O2.
I can assure you nobody returned to a studio and re-recorded anything.
This mass of live pictures and sound are mixed afterwards ( post production) to produce the best result possible and this is how ALL live music DVDs are made and is 100% live.
You can also have a 100% live recording with one camera and microphone, plenty of these on You-Tube, if you prefer them!

[kipper]

There is one thing I want to remark, the DVD is perfect. But......... the DVD is not 100% live. Afterwards studio records did complete the DVD.

Peter

on what do you base this claim peter thats a big statement to make peter

[strongbow]

Question for Stageleft:

Does the post-production ever mix and match visual and audio tracks? For instance, on any given song could you have the visual from the first night matched with the audio from the second night?

[Pedro]

I have been looking at quite a few 'You Tube' videos of late (Marty Wilde etc) and have the opinion that HBM is not at all relaxed when playing alongside other peers. Still the greatest when playing with the Shadows. Does not join the end line in the Strat Pack or Night of the Guitars etc.